Nationals!

So, we are going to Nationals tomorrow!  I'm driving and Meredith and her husband are coming.  I just got my chins groomed tonight.  Last minute as usual.  Still haven't packed though, and I want to say we're leaving in 10 hours?

But other things, that normally wouldn't be done yet, are already done.  All the cages that needed to be cleaned are now cleaned.  All the chins are dusted, all the animals had their bowls topped off for food, and extra bowls and extra water bottles added to the cages that go through the food and water like no tomorrow.  The one rat cage, I was adding a second water bottle, and I'd just filled the first, and as I'm adding the second, I see the water slooowly pouring out the first.  Well no wonder I was thinking those rats were so thirsty!  So I pitched that one, just left the one big one on (which is like 4x the size of the other one, so they'll be good for a few days).   I left the chin and pig food out so I can top everything off again in the afternoon before I leave, but I should be good for water with all the fillups today. 

I have my 6-hole carrier ready and labeled.  Have the two girls separated so they don't decide to somehow kill each other through the metal.  Got a nice complacent boy in the middle who looked very pretty after his grooming.  With my luck he'll sit under his water bottle or sleep on his back in wet shavings tonight.  Hopefully not, but that's happened before.  I have literally had chins get pen stained in their carrier the night before show and I'm always like AHHHHHH.

So we will see.

The chins were... ah.... fun to groom.  Before I even got Gypsy out of her cage, she sprayed me in the face.  Then I groomed the boy without a hitch, and see, this is why I like males.  Then I pulled out the other female and I was almost done, and I had her down on the ground holding her by her tail, so I could rest my arm (I groom with em dangling in the air, versus the people who do it on their lap -- I can never get em to hold still enough).  So I had her down on the ground so my arm wouldn't fall off and the stinker just nonchalantly scuttled over to my leg and took a HUGE chomp out of it, like through my jeans, into the skin, everything.  The little turd! 

Anyway, they should be relatively easy to groom tomorrow, as I went through with all the combs today, but no doubt they'll go romping around in their shavings and leaning up against their water bottles.  I swear, every time I see the boy he's up front leaning on that water bottle.  It's like ahhhhh there's so much cage to sit in and he plunks himself down and lets it drip on him.  He's probably doing it right now, thinking, ha! this'll serve her.  We'll see.  He got reserve phase champ at his last show.... course, that was before I got him, so I want to see how he does, but he's a pretty boy, so hopefully good.

So the show's actually Saturday, but because I'm not a morning person and don't want to be up at the crack of dawn to drive there, we're driving over tomorrow night and then will be staying Saturday night as well, so we're not driving home late.  I remember driving home from the last show, which was the only one I've ever gone to where we haven't stayed the second night, and I remember poking Meredith and telling her that she needed to stay awake so we could talk and I could stay awake, but that won't be a problem leaving in the morning.   Plus, more time at the pool.  Yay.

So in non-show related news, one of the students from the high school has been here several times now, they're looking to adopt GiGi.  Dropped off their cage and I need to make shelves for it, so they will be coming back Tuesday.  Then, let's see, I have another student wanting to come next Friday I believe, need to email him back.  I need to set the date for when some of the other chins are leaving.  I need to email some people pics of the chins they've asked for pics of.  Business is booming for once.

Oh and Punkin, one of the rats dropped off yesterday, was adopted today.  She went home with the family that currently has Amber, one of our other rats they adopted.  She was adopted without a health guarantee, as being here one day isn't enough for me to go out on a limb and say that she's healthy, though the home that she was in -- they originally adopted her from here, and I've seen them spend several hundred on a rat before, so I'm not really worried that she isn't healthy.  Really, any of the animals can go early, but no health guarantee means that I won't be responsible for, or reimbursing for, any vet bills occurring within the first week after adoption.  Which some people are fine with, some not.  In reality, the health guarantee rarely comes into question.  Recently a guinea pig was adopted, and developed some sort of dry skin around her face.  She was treated and was fine.  And upon notification, I preventatively treated all the pigs here for mites/parasites (which it wasn't, but better safe than sorry).  Also had a rat awhile back that I adopted out early, and I (stupidly) gave the health guarantee, even though she'd barely been here two weeks... she started walking in circles within a few days, was treated, but by the time she started showing symptoms, the infection had progressed to her brain, so there was no fixing that.  Course, the death was after the family racked up a few hundred dollars in vet bills, more than I'd honestly spend on a single rat had it been here at the rescue, which is why now, they can still go early, but they're not going with a health guarantee if they're going early.  The whole point of the 30 days is that the incubation period of most illnesses is less than 30 days.  So if the animal's sick, it's going to show up, considerably more likely than not, in that first 30 days.  And when it does, it gets treated, hopefully gets well, and is often still up for adoption at 30 days. 

So, I currently have two people wanting female guinea pigs -- at the moment I only have one female baby, and it's going to the first person to contact me.  I called them a few days ago and they called back yesterday saying they were interested, so I'm going to email them pics in the morning and they're coming Tuesday.  Currently Pixie's getting a bit round, so I may have some more piggies soon.  We will see.

Anyway.  Going to bed now.  Will have my netbook with me (cause I can't live without it... or my phone) so may very well post updates during the weekend.